Chapter 14: Are You Seeing Someone on the Side?

Two days later, Jian Ruo Ci finished the design draft and received the final payment of five thousand yuan. This design draft earned her a total of ten thousand yuan.

She transferred five thousand yuan to Jian Xu as his living expenses. Jian Xu didn’t accept it and returned the money.

Jian Xu: [I don’t need money. You keep it.]

Jian Ruo Ci sighed, her fingers quickly tapping on the screen. Then she clicked send. [Take it. Don’t force me to go to your school and beat you up.]

Jian Xu: [Jian Ruo Ci, are you seeing someone on the side?]

Jian Ruo Ci: [……？？？]

For some reason, her first reaction to the word “dog” in Jian Xu’s mouth was Pei Yan Zhou.

Jian Xu: [You got dumped.]

Jian Xu knew she had been dumped. She wasn’t surprised at all, after all, Yan Xi was a big mouth.

Jian Ruo Ci: [It’s true that I got dumped, but where did I get a dog?]

In the time since she was dumped, she had only had some interaction with one man, Pei Yan Zhou. But she hadn’t told anyone about this, not even Yan Xi. So, Jian Xu at school couldn’t possibly know.

Jian Xu: [Just saying. Jian Ruo Ci, you have bad taste in men. You’re a magnet for jerks. Stay away from men.]

“…”

What did that mean?!

She had bad taste in men? She was a magnet for jerks?

Did this kid even have any respect for his older sister?

Jian Ruo Ci: [Jian Xu! You’re asking for it!]

The message was sent with a red exclamation mark. He blocked her again.

Jian Xu didn’t accept the money and directly blocked her.

Jian Ruo Ci was persistent and sent another message: [At least take the money first.]

Still a red exclamation mark. She was used to it. She and Jian Xu would block each other every few days over nothing.

Usually, Jian Xu would block her because he didn’t want to take her money, or because he thought she was too nagging.

A rebellious teenager, disrespectful and rude.

At noon, she made a simple lunch. After eating, she checked the freelance platform to see if there were any jobs. After taking a big order, she didn’t get any more jobs for the time being.

Just as she opened her computer, the doorbell rang. She put the computer on the coffee table, went to the door, and looked through the peephole. It was the landlord.

Seeing that it was the landlord, Jian Ruo Ci opened the door.

The landlord was a middle-aged woman in her forties. She had always been easy to talk to. Sometimes, when Jian Ruo Ci couldn’t afford the rent, the landlord wouldn’t urge her, giving her time to pay.

She greeted her with a smile. “Auntie, is there something you need today?”

The landlord looked at her, her eyes filled with difficulty. “Ruo Ci…”

Jian Ruo Ci: “Auntie, what is it?”

“The apartment… Auntie can’t rent it to you anymore… Please leave before twelve o’clock tonight.” The landlord said. “Auntie broke the contract first. I’ll refund you three months’ rent.”

Jian Ruo Ci’s eyes darkened. “Did someone come to see you?”

The landlord nodded in embarrassment. Jian Ruo Ci understood. It wasn’t that the landlord wanted to kick her out, but that someone wanted to drive her to a dead end.

She smiled. “I understand. Auntie, you don’t need to refund the rent. Thank you for taking care of me all this time.”

“I’ll move out before twelve o’clock tomorrow.”

The landlord apologized a few more times before leaving.

Jian Ruo Ci looked at the apartment she had lived in for two years, feeling a pang of regret. After leaving the Jian family at the age of eighteen, this was the longest she had lived in one place.

She wouldn’t dwell on her emotions for too long. Quickly, she picked up her computer and searched for a few listings on the rental platform. After deciding on a target, she changed her clothes and went out.

In three hours, she visited three places, three landlords. They all refused to rent to her when they saw her identity information during the contract signing.

Jian Ruo Ci had already guessed. It was her father, stepmother, and stepsister who were behind it.

Without finding an apartment, Jian Ruo Ci didn’t go anywhere else to look. She went straight home.

Because she knew that even if she kept looking, it would be futile.

She sat on the sofa for a while, then got up to pack her things. It seemed like she was really going to be sleeping on the streets.

She packed her clothes into her suitcase. In the corner of the closet was a black box.

She picked up the box and placed it on the bed. As she was thinking about which bridge underpass to sleep in the capital, she opened the box. Inside lay a key.

Jian Ruo Ci picked up the key, her eyes lighting up.

Her thoughts went back to when she was eight years old.

Her thirteen-year-old uncle had put the key in her hand, saying, “If you ever have nowhere to go, this is your home.”

The “home” he was referring to was in the suburban villa district. It was his old family home. But later, he left, not to a faraway place, but to leave this world. Now, the villa was probably a neglected yard overgrown with weeds.

Every year, she would go there to clean it, clearing the weeds in the yard. She hadn’t been there yet today.

She looked at the key in her hand and smiled slightly, whispering, “Little Uncle, are you doing well in the other world? Have you seen Mom and Dad?”

The next day, Jian Ruo Ci dragged two suitcases, hailed a taxi at the entrance of the community, and went to the suburban villa district.

She dragged her suitcases and stood at the entrance of the villa. She noticed that the black openwork iron gate, which had been rusty, was now brand new.

This was an old villa district. In the past, only the rich and powerful could live in this villa district. Now, everyone in this villa district had moved out, and basically no one came here anymore.

So, how did this gate get fixed?

She took out the key, opened the gate, and walked in. The scene before her shocked her. The yard, which should have been overgrown with weeds, was now clean and tidy, without any weeds.

She opened the door, walked into the entrance hall, and looked at the table in the entrance hall. There wasn’t a speck of dust on it, as if it had been cleaned recently.

She walked through the living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, guest room, and study. There wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere. It looked like someone had been living in this house, but she hadn’t seen anyone.

It couldn’t be a thief, because there was nothing valuable inside.

Although she was puzzled, she didn’t think too much about it. It was better to have a place to stay than to sleep under a bridge.

She cleaned the house again. The house was decorated in a style from over ten years ago. She looked at a family photo on the coffee table.

The people in the photo were smiling warmly. The man in the suit was looking lovingly at the woman beside him. Standing in the middle was a young boy with a serious expression, his young eyes cold.

She smiled slightly and looked at the family photo for a while before putting it back on the coffee table.

She carried her suitcases and went upstairs to a guest room. She would stay here for a while.

The more they didn’t want her to live well, the better she would live. She would slap them in the face.

However, her biological father was a complete failure. She had thought that Jian Sen Ran didn’t like girls, but she didn’t expect that he didn’t like his son either.

Jian Xu had been well-behaved and obedient since he was a child, in order to avoid causing her trouble. But even so, Jian Sen Ran ignored him, letting the mother and daughter bully him.

Everyone called Jian Xu a bastard, someone who wasn’t good enough, but no one blamed Jian Sen Ran for not being able to control himself. It was Jian Sen Ran who should be blamed by everyone.

If they could choose their parents, who would want a scumbag who abandoned his wife and child as their father?